The Military Orders and the Crusades (audio)

The Crusades are often a misrepresented and misunderstood part of the history of the Church. James and Joanna Bogle reveal the compelling truth behind the crusades, investigating their causes and history. They also explain how various military orders were established to protect Christian interests in Europe and the Holy Land from invading Muslims after the first crusade.

Many misconceptions exist surrounding the Crusades. James and Joanna Bogle discuss why the Crusades were actually a defensive reaction in response to invading Muslim forces rather than the offensive act of aggression they are often portrayed to be.

Prior to 612 AD most of the Middle East was Christian territory. James and Joanna Bogle detail how through invasion and conquest Islam spread through the Middle East, northern Africa and across parts of Europe.

Islam spread quickly in the early 700’s stretching through all of Mesopotamia, parts of India, all of northern Africa, Spain, almost to Constantinople. James and Joanna Bogle explain how the Muslims captured the Holy Land with all its important Christian sites causing the need for a defensive force to take back those lands taken from Christianity.

In response to the Muslim invasion of the Holy Land, Christians mobilized for the first crusade in a attempt to win back the Holy Land. James and Joanna Bogle explain how Catholic Knights from across Europe traveled to the Holy Land and drove out the Muslims to establish the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Legends about the Knights Templar have been exaggerated in modern day literature. James and Joanna Bogle relate the true story of the knights, showing how they were established as an elite fighting force whose purpose was to protect pilgrims and holy sites within the Holy Land after the First Crusade.

The Knights Hospitaller is the oldest of the Military Orders and one that persists to this day. James and Joanna Bogle discuss how this order originated to help protect and serve Christians in the Holy Land and still serve today with their many hospitals and other charities.

The Albigensians were a heretical group in Europe that mounted attacks against the Church, burning churches and killing Catholics. James and Joanna Bogle demonstrate that like the other Crusades, today’s secular world likes to put an anti-Catholic slant on what was a purely an action of self-defense by the Church.

Through their defense of the Holy Land, the Knights Templar gained wealth and power. James and Joanna Bogle show how this caught the envious eye of Phillip IV of France. He mounted a persecution of the order to gain their wealth which lead to their eventual suppression.

After the fall of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers were forced to move their base from city to city. James and Joanna Bogle explain how they eventually ended up on the island of Malta where they have flourished to this day. Today the Knights make over a billion dollars in charitable donations each year and continue to tend to others through their hospitals and clinics.

Like the Hospitallers, the Teutonic Order was formed to establish hospitals and aid pilgrims in the Holy Land. James and Joanna Bogle relate how the Order later transferred its efforts to Poland and Prussia. But with the conversion to Lutheranism of the Prussian leaders, the order was secularized by the government, leading to is disbandment.

As the Muslim conquest of Europe continued, almost all of the Iberian Peninsula was overrun. James and Joanna Bogle show how infighting among Muslim leaders allowed the Crusading Knights to regain a foothold in northern Spain, and eventually drive the Muslims out of the entire area.

Europe and thus Catholicism was continually attacked on all sides by Muslim forces. James and Joanna Bogle use examples such as the Battle of Lepanto to show how the Christian leaders were able to stop Muslim invasions, often under miraculous conditions, until the era of the Crusades finally wound down in 1789.

After the French Revolution, secularism swept across much of Europe. James and Joanna Bogle show that to deny the authority of the Church, secularists painted the crusaders as imperialistic conquerors instead of defenders of Christians and the faith, a misconception that persists to this day.